I don't know of too many folks that have completed the Revell Gato. Then the in-accuracies started hitting me...

The "covered wagon" sail was quickly deemed ineffecient for submarine warfare and soon, shipyards were tearing the sails down. The result was the "high sail" which the kit gives you. Notice the difference in the kit provided sail on the bottom and my modifications.

also note the original trunk for ready use ammo and other stuff. These trunks are waterproof and Revell has molded the trunks straight to the sail with you the builder, adding the hatches. The smarter move would have been to flash the mounting holes over and allow you to put the trunks as per your references; since all boats had different placement. Oh well... So as you can imagine, the kit's assertion that it can be built as one of four boats is wrong. This is how Flasher's sail looked. Flasher sadly, is one of the boats, they claim the kit can be built as.

The boat's forward trunks are wrong for Flasher so I chopped off the original location (notice it under the far left railing post) and filled it in. I then moved it and it's hatch to the front. I added the two tiny salvage connections underneath the far left hatch. Some spare PE provided the hand-wheels on the connections.

I also scratchbuilt the ready use ammo box on top of the gun position, off to the left of the white ring. The same spare hand-wheels have been added to the Starboard side trunk hatches instead of the incorrect lever pattern that Revell molded. The hole in the middle of the sail is my "marker" where Flasher's footstep will go. I need to enlarge that opening, make it oval and then add a ladder rung.

In addition to getting the sail wrong for Flasher, they also got this whole supporting structure wrong. I've repositioned the radio stub by making a new one and then I added the white cable run and junction box leading up to it. I'll then wire it when I finish the maintenance platform. The safety ring was scratch built for the crew to hang on to and the platform at the bottom will need some wires, junction boxes and some connectors. The mast near the searchlight had incorrect braces, so I'll have to scratch those as well.

The kit gives you one honking huge water-tight storage trunk for the bridge which they tell you mount in the open. Flasher had *2* trunks, mounted vertical underneath the scope shears. Scratchbuilding to the rescue. On the deck, you can see two white "lines" where I filled in the mounting holes for the incorrect trunk. The white stuff in front is where I cut down the forward bridge. I also tricked out the torpedo "gun sight" using PE scraps.

Instead of a boatload of worthless interior-crap that will never be seen like tank baffles, etc, Revell should have given you an extra 20mm and 40mm gun. As a result you can only build one boat right out of the box without buying aftermarket. The twin 20mm on the right is aftermarket from Nautilus models. PE scraps provided the do-dads on the gun sight and 40mm gun. The gun sight's "tower" is scratchbuilt to replace the incorrect "pole" that Revell gives you.

Here's everything dry-fitted. The gap in the railing will be filled in with railing but a small platform sticks out from each side. So that will be scratchbuilt later. At the end of the periscope shears I'll also need to scratchbuild a radar mast.

Here's the front. You can see some of the detail on the gun sight. Behind the gun sight, under the scope shears, you can make out two circular openings. The whole supporting wall has these circular openings. For Flasher, only the front two exist. The remaining ones are square. So more modification. The hole under the front of the gun deck is where I tore out the old trunk and relocated it to the front.

The twin 20mm is just sitting there. At war's end, Flasher will mount two single 40mm guns on her sail, a forward 5 inch gun and the twin 20mm will sit aft. The white boxes littered throughout the sail are boxes for the sound-powered phones. Right now, there's about 100 scratchbuilt parts or modifications. At this point in the build, I am 10% finished. I recommend the Nautilus Model's aftermarket stuff.

Hi Don, looks like you are doing a very nice job on the sub. I to am building this model. I already have about 800 hrs. in this thing. I'm more of a fiction bldr. I like to build things that I think "look cool" . I'm building a diorama with the sub having been hit by a torpedo with a big explosion. Sinking in the ocean with two under water mines under the bow, with another torpedo heading for the sub. There is 27 crewmen scrambling for there lives, with a few dead in the water. I am in the process of pouring clear polyester resin for the ocean. The ocean will be very ruff 15 gals. I have reached burnout stage and have not worked on it for about 2 months, only temporary of course. Will try and post a couple of pics . Tim If this doesn't work send me a e-mail and I will redo the link.

Are you doing a specific "sunk" sub like Wahoo or Growler? This is my sixth Gato and like the others, being built for sub vets. For myself, I'm going to build Barb and Cusk (the one that launched the captured V-1's [renamed Loon]).

By way of introduction (everybody), Tim is an honest-to-God LOCAL modeller - from this very same (Lee) County - who I met at the LHS the other day. That made TWO (besides me) that I've met in the last 20 years - but Tim further reported that by now there is a local club, with some 5-6 members, headed by the inimitable Don Czech (who planned with me to start one almost 10 years ago, but we never could get even a third person).

Tim, your Gato "Die-O-Rama" reminds me of a shot-up Martin B-26 I was once working on, but abandoned (for various reasons) - exept infinitely more violent. On the pure modelling technique side, though, your skill level and use of multimedia all look very interesting. Does that kit come with the detailed weld-lines I saw in your closeups, or are they some aftermarket details you added?

Very interesting - keep us posted - and it's great to see you here, at ModelFleet buddy!

No, believe it or not it took me about 3 nights with an Exacto knife making tiny slices on the weld lines, and then melting them down with liquid cement. Did you check out the dented metal panels on the sides of the sub ? I did them with a soildering iron and a glass paint bottle.

Yes, I saw that "oil-canning" towards your bow, and also your twisted plates around the engine room explosion, aft. But HOW did you use the soldering iron and bottle - are you saying you stuck the iron in the glass to heat it while pressing against the model? I would imagine that would shatter most glass. Was it any special type - maybe especially thick, or thin?

In any case, very innovative Tim!

Cheers,

- Matty

Re: Yes - but How?

Posted by Tim on November 14, 2011, 9:38:48, in reply to "Yes - but How?"

I used the iron to heat the plastic with very slow passes back and forth until the plastic was soft. Then I used a paint bottle to mash the plastic between the weld lines. Very effective method, but the heat must be controlled or things can get ugly very fast. Tim

WOW, that's more skillful than I think I would have been, Tim - VERY impressive!

The best idea I've had so far, for such "oil-canning" was to tape over the frames with strips of aluminum HVAC tape, then sand the whole area: the tape would protect the framing pattern, while the areas in between would be hollowed out. Far better for much smaller-scale builds, though - doing it at 1/72 like you needed would be far more work, and probably far less effective.